property news

October 10, 2012

Property News Round Up

Another week and another bucket load of property news is making it’s way across the internet and into the property services community. Rentview bring you the top stories so far this week.

Property news

Monday 8th of October : The first nugget coming our way on Monday was the interesting news of a large influx in premium properties (worth 1 Million plus) going up for sale on the French property market. According to the Mail Online the reason for the large increase in properties on the market is the proposed new higher tax of 75% for the wealthy people in France.

Another interesting story on Monday was the the upcoming legal changes on the sale of property in Ireland set to come in from January 2013. The Law society of Ireland chaired by a former exec of the property registration authority accessed the current regulation on the sale of property from 2010.

property-news

Tuesday 9TH October 2012: Unusual news and quite horrifying for some as there were explosives going off at a NAMA housing estate. There were two separate incidents, with methane and carbon monoxide causing damage to some of the properties in the estate, but luckily no parties were injured.

Tuesday we also got some good feedback from an interesting photo we posted to our Facebook via broadsheet highlighting a potential rental boom. The pic which was taken from a showing at a three bed property in Ranelagh last week showed a crowd of property-hungry people queuing up to view the cottage. Just the area or is this happening throughout Ireland?

Don’t forget to suggest any other property news or areas you may wish us to cover!

Thanks for reading!

August 3, 2012

Property News : The Friday Wrap Up

Welcome to the new Friday wrap where we we bring you the top stories in the property industry from around Ireland and the rest of the world.

Monday On Monday Ulster Bank settled a case with property developer and owner of the Harcourt building in Dublin David Agar, its speculated up to €30 Million in loans were written off as well as €1M legal fees paid. Monday also saw NAMA launch a new website for selling its properties throughout Ireland and the UK (See the Image below),Full story here. Wrapping up the top stories from Monday we have Tom McFeely the man responsible for the disaster story of priory hall this year being declared bankrupt in Ireland and not the solely the UK, read more here.

Tuesday 31st June 2012

Yahoo Homes had a great post on Tuesday noting the top ways to make your home look bigger, Jeffrey Blum a designer from NY has some truly unique & interesting way of making your apartment look bigger & better
Tuesday also brought some welcome news on property disputes in the UK as Letting Agent Today reported that the Tenancy Deposit Scheme’s adjudication team are resolving most disputes in just 16 days! As Rentview co-founder said it best-take note PRTB!
The last nugget from Tuesday came from Conor Pope of the Irish Times as he reported the worry spreading throughout the renting community as banks look to collect rents directly from tenants.
Wednesday had a great start to the day as our team learned we had been nominated in the category of ‘Most Insightful and Intriguing Internet Innovation’ at the Net Visionary Awards 2012 , voting s set to open in the near future so stay tuned and be sure to support Ireland’s leading provider of Letting Agent software

Simon Carswell of Irish Times reported yesterday that 20% of Irish mortgages are set to default on their loan repayments with the trend looking to continue into the future according to credit rating agency Fitch.

So did we miss anything? What do you think were the major headlines in property this week?

Please feel free to Tweet, Share, Like and everything else that makes us social 😉

August 2, 2012

Rental property inventories and why agents should provide them

A property inventory is a crucial tool in the property manager’s tool belt for all let and manage residential units. Its also a great way to create an additional revenue stream for your let-only clients.

Why a property manager should provide rental inventories from Rentview on Vimeo.

Historically, the inventories provided by the majority of agents were written reports, they were time-consuming to compile and really only protected against the theft of an item.

If a dispute arose at the end of a tenancy about the condition of a said item, it normally would result in one of the agent’s clients being unhappy. As both landlords and tenants are clients of the agent, it is essential to protect both parties against disputes.

Now, through the Rentview Inventory App, you can provide that transparent inventory easily. This is proven to be a great way to improve customer service and reduce end of tenancy disputes.

As always we would love to hear your feedback.

Please feel free to Tweet, Share, Like and everything else that makes us social 😉

by Andreas Riha

July 19, 2012

NPSRA Licensing

As most of you are aware by now the NPSRA (National Property Services Regulatory Authority) took over the licensing of property service providers on July sixth 2012. This includes auctioneers/estate agents, letting agents and property management agents. So the NPSRA is now a body who has the ability to legally punish those who provide such services. This blog runs through the nine key steps you need to take to register with the NPSRA if you haven’t already done so! In our next blog on the topic we will detail the requirements outlined in their codes of practice. Until then enjoy and click the ‘like’ to share!

by Andreas Riha

July 17, 2012

Property Infographic: Landlords and Property Management

Rentview are always busy looking to provide some useful information to the rental market and our latest Infographic looks at some of the key trends/issues landlords are facing with their rental properties today. Take a look at our findings.

Now some quick notes on the data and areas for discussion :

Bank transfer is the most common payment method with over half of the landlords surveyed collecting the rent this way. Just under 30% are using a standing order to deduct the amount each month while 14% still physically collect the rent from their tenants. Which is easiest in your opinion?

Our next question we quizzed the landlords on was their experience in collecting the rental payments. Almost half (43%) of landlords have experienced some sort of difficulty in collecting rent. Definitely a worrying statistic which raises the question of quality of referencing tenants?

Following on from my point on the quality of referencing we questioned our landlord database on the various formats they use for issuing a reference to a tenant. Not surprisingly e-mail has taken over from some of the previously popular formats like phone and written.

A big area we wanted to analyse was how the landlord communicates with their tenants for management of the property. This is a big area in which Rentview help agencies save time and reduce the no of hours they have that phone held to their ear! Coming out on top was landlords who call their tenants and those who have hired an agent on their behalf to manage the tenant and the property. I have always been a conscious of using the phone when dealing with important tenant/landlord issues as it is in no way traceable if there was ever to be a disagreement.

And finally the stuff most of us don’t want to hear, how many landlords have had to issue legal notices to their tenants on rents unpaid. Unfortunately one fourth of the landlords have issued a rent arrears or eviction notice.

For more information on Rentview you can click here , and connect with Rentview on Facebook and twitter @Rentview_ .

by Andreas Riha

July 10, 2012

Infographic: The Dublin Rental market

With the rental market in Dublin approaching its busiest time of the year we take a look at the market and what is available.

Once again, a few quick notes on what we can take from this.

There is a huge supply of rental property in Dublin at the moment meaning the market is highly competitive for the agencies while tenants benefit from such a large supply with less demand. Interestingly enough I just checked Daft.ie to compare our figure as we created this early last week and they are identical, so not much movement for now.

Secondly, as expected Apartments are the dominant property type throughout the city, this is was obviously going to be the case in such a highly congested city with most house’s outside for the city having homeowners. Thankfully there is only 227 flats as I have a hatred towards them after my year long stay in Rathmines during college 🙂

Out of the 4756 properties currently on the market the majority (A total of 77.3%) are two and three beds, interestingly the number of 3 bed apartments available is just over three hundred less than two beds.

Lastly we breakdown the amounts of properties available at the various and most comment rental prices, starting with the bargain hunter @ 0-€500 they have a limited selection of 146 rental properties. From there the number of properties gradually rises through the next two rent brackets and peaking during the €800-€1,100 bracket with over two thousand properties on the market in that price range.

As always we would love to hear your feedback on this topic.

Other property infographics –

The NPSRA & Licensed property services providers

Landlords and tenants infographic

by Andreas Riha

July 4, 2012

Infographic: Tenants and Landlords Property Management

Tenants and Landlords Property Management

Welcome to the very first infographic from Rentview. We’re always looking at new ways to provide content for the property management industry and we have started with this analysis on tenants who are currently living in rented accommodation. From our survey of renters in Ireland, here are some of the interesting facts and figures we discovered 🙂

tenants and landlords property management

Some quick notes on the figures above for tenants and landlords property management:

Firstly the rent collection process from landlords or agents is quite varied, from physically collecting the rent from the tenant to transferring the money via online banking. Standing order, one of the cheapest methods and more efficient for collecting a tenant’s rent placed third in the list of options, which do you think works best?

Interestingly a whopping 74% currently do not receive a receipt for their rental payments. I have always requested a receipt from my landlord when paying to ensure there is no possible reason for disagreements over moneys paid throughout the year, and secondly its a great form of reference to apply for credit in the future. What’s your opinion?

Our third section is slightly worrying for me, as over 50% of the 100 tenants we surveyed noted difficulties in contacting their property manager or landlord throughout their tenancy. I personally would wonder how any agency is going to consistently maintain there tenant base when they are facing such issues.

Finally we questioned the renters of Ireland on their experiences in securing a rent reference after their tenancy, most landlords and agents were happy to give out references promptly to their tenants (44%) while only 24% had difficulty in securing a reference.

Other infographics you might like-

Landlords and property management infographic

The Dublin rental market infographic

by Andreas Riha

June 29, 2012

Property Services Regulation Act 2011

Property-Services-Regulation-Act-2011

Property Services Regulation Act 2011 – how it will affect you?

With the deadline rapidly approaching, the old Auctioneers licensing law issued by The Courts and Revenue is expiring and the new Property Services Regulation Act 2011 is approaching. As of the 6th of July 2012, all letting agents and management agents must be licensed by the NPSRA.

One of the main functions of the Authority is the licensing of Property Services Providers (i.e. Auctioneers/Estate Agents, Letting Agents and Management Agents). It will take over the licensing of Auctioneers/Estate Agents and Letting Agents from the Courts and Revenue Commissioners and also license, for the first time, Management Agents.

The Act defines four separate types of property service

The auction of property other than land;
The purchase or sale, by whatever means, of land;
The letting of land; and,
Property management services

Click Here for a Guide to becoming a Licensed Property Services Provider

If you are providing any of these services and have not submitted your application, you should do so immediately. There is a grace period where if you have submitted your application prior to July 6th 2012 you may still continue offering these services. However, if you continue to offer these services and have not been licensed or submitted your application, you are breaking the law.

Here is a list of Licensed Auctioneers by county care of the NPSRA for the year 2013.

As always, we would be happy to hear your feedback on this topic.

by Andreas Riha

June 26, 2012

Information Systems Planning for Letting Agents Part Two

Continuing on from last weeks post where we discussed the placement that software programs may have in an agencies overall strategy today we begin to look at the five steps of the IS (Information Systems) plan which is adapted from Gabrielle Piccoli book on Information Systems for Managers.

Step One: Know who you are, strategic business planning.

Always ensure there is a long term plan for the overall direction of the agency before developing your IS plan. Software is an enabler of such plans, for example as an agency you may want to grow the business to a stage where you will require more offices/branches. In this case you may pursue a software package that is going to help catch tenants and landlords attention and improve the value you provide to your customer. On the flip side your costs may be badly affecting profits so you may be in pursuit of a system which will significantly reduce administration costs such as printing and accounts management. So you have an idea of why you need the software now its time for step two.

Step two: Know where you start: Information Systems Assessment

Once the agency has a clear grasp on the role of software in the organisation we must assess the current situation your letting agent is in. So there is a few key things we do here, firstly note the different types of software or hardware you use to manage data. Is Microsoft excel your one stop shop for accounts? Is all written communication with landlords done via you E-mail account etc? How are sales calls and service calls recorded and managed? Where are invoices stored and managed and so on? Basically you want to access the role systems even as basic as Microsoft word are working for your agency and especially to access if they’re effective in terms of the business strategy.

Thats the technical side of the assessment but don’t forget the people. Planning for the use of IS or software programs always involves four things people,technology,process and structure, each interlinked for ensuring efficient use of IS or software programs. Question your staff members or in the case of an individual running an agency on the use of such systems and what they may lack or require to help you. For example you may have the latest accounts management system for dealing with all your inbound and outbound payments but if the staff are struggling to use the system then it may not be effective for the business. I have often heard of payments being missed by an agent or landlord due to basic mismanagement of information where the software didn’t ensure payments are received etc, there is numerous other things you may notice at this point. All of this then leads to the main step which is creating the vision for IS in the agency, that will be discussed in the next blog 🙂 Please comment with your thoughts and share if you found this useful or interesting.

Information systems planning for letting agents part one

by Rentview

June 25, 2012

How to read your electricity / gas bill with Electric Ireland

“How come my bill is so high?” As a letting agent or landlord a common question you may get from a tenant is exactly that. In most cases its not that the bill is so high its about understanding the bill. For some tenants they may not be familiar with how the utility companies work. This can be the case for first time tenants and foreign tenants renting in Ireland for the first time more so. They may not be familiar with deposits or how the billing system works.

Through this useful link provided by Electric Ireland you can now see what exactly everything means. Now the next time you get a call from a tenant asking “How Come my energy bills are so high” you can go through the bill and help them understand what everything means.

From my own experience a lot of the times I got asked this question was based on 2 points.

1. Reading was an estimate. A bill can be estimated when the meter reader employed by the utility company to visit a property and read residential readings could not gain access to the meter. (Meters can be located inside a property and sometimes locked away in communal meter rooms) If this is the case the utility company estimates the readings based on previous consumption.

2. Security Deposit. When you open a new utility account the provider in most cases will seek a security deposit against the account. This has been brought out over the last few years to help protect the utility company against tenants absconding with a large unpaid bill.

You may also find our previous Blog on: Opening an account with an energy provider useful

Click through here to view the interactive bill Reading your electricity / gas bill with Electric Ireland

As always we would be happy to hear your feedback on this topic.

Please feel free to comment, share , tweet etc.

by Andreas Riha